I'm sure many of you have heard of the impending shutdown of a few third party apps - and the upcoming blackout that many subs will be participating in. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has provided an AMA that you can read. There's a lot to take in, but the long and short of it is that Reddit is asking third party app developers to move to a paid tier of their API. That's totally fair, but what the developers are struggling with is the way in which Reddit is going about it, the potential astronomical costs, and the fact that Reddit is giving them 30 days to get moved over. And, perhaps, some duplicitous comments from Reddit itself.

So we're going to touch on some questions you may have.

How does this impact me?

In all honestly, unless you are using a third party app (Apollo, Relay, RIF, BaconReader, etc) there shouldn't be much of an impact for you. And some of these apps may actually survive if they opt into the paid tier of API access that Reddit is introducing. Reddit has stated that non-commercial apps that are specifically for accessibility will be able to continue on the free tier. If you are relying on something like RedReader for screen reading, that app will stay operational under the current agreement.

However, thousands of other subs you may enjoy won't be available for at least 48 hours, some indefinitely.

How does this impact stepparents mods?

Many of us relied on third-party apps which provide a better moderating experience on mobile. Personally, I've been slowly migrating to using the default Reddit app as more mod tools are introduced there. But honestly, it's been super nice to have Apollo as a backup if I needed to do something that the native app couldn't handle. As Reddit brings in more and more of our tools that we have available on desktop to the native app, it gets easier, but it's still not perfect.

What is the Blackout?

Thousands of subreddits will be moving into private mode beginning June 12, some of these are HUGE subreddits. Several have indicated they will stay private until Reddit agrees to address their intended pricing of API access.

Private subs are not generally accessible unless the mod team has manually added the users as approved users. And considering some of the subs participating have literally millions of subscribers, there's no way participating mods will be curating an approved users list. Besides that, it's kind of against the point. The point is to make the sub inaccessible in protest of the API fees.

As we are a support sub, and every mod here has shared the pain of trying to find a suitable place to post where stepparents aren't immediately reviled before finding this sub, we will not be participating in the blackout. We will still be here. As much as I personally would like to participate in this, I cannot, in good conscious take away a resource for so many struggling stepparents.

So, what does that mean for r/stepparents then?

Given that literally thousands of subs will be inaccessible, we are anticipating an influx in traffic. And considering that some of the subs going black aren't ... uh ... stepparent friendly, we anticipate some of that traffic being a little on the salty side.

Thankfully, our good buddy Saferbot will remain operational and is not impacted by the changes. However, the largest sub the bot monitors will be participating in the blackout, so he is going to be of minimal help.

In an attempt to help us keep any issues to a minimum, I will be making some changes to a few tools that we use to control traffic in the sub. Users with no karma specifically from this sub will need to be manually approved. We already have a process for manually approving comments and posts from new accounts, but this could possibly impact users who have been here for a bit, but for whatever reason they are routinely downvoted.

This will be more work for the mod team, but it is what it is. If you have a post or comment that isn't showing up for whatever reason, it's either in the queue waiting for manual approval, or we looked at it and deemed it inappropriate. And not all of those confirmed removals are going to get removal notifications. If your content was innocuous, it'll be visible as soon as a human can approve it. But if your content is in violation of any of our rules, it's going to disappear into a black void forever, potentially without notice.

How can I help?

Honestly, if you feel strongly about this, the recommendation is for you to also take a little hiatus from Reddit. Spend some time with your family, touch some grass, enjoy a life away from a screen for a few days. Reddit thrives because of traffic, your clicks make them money. Hit them where it hurts.

If you aren't feeling strongly and want to continue to hang out here, why not help the mod team out by reporting content that is in violation of our rules? We are probably not going to catch every little thing, so it helps if you guys stay aware. We are a SUPPORT sub first and foremost, if you see comments that are low in support and high in snark, report them.

If you have any additional questions not covered here, drop them in the comments and one of us will try our best to answer you. I'm going to be a little tied up tweaking our settings, but I'll do my best to keep an eye on this.

As always, thank you for helping us keep a safe haven for stepparents on Reddit.